Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Price Target Lowered to $198.00 at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) had its price target lowered by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $210.00 to $198.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on MTH. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $190.79 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The business’s 50 day moving average is $195.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.74. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $129.42 and a 52-week high of $213.98. The firm has a market cap of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.82.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.16 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MTH. CWM LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.9% during the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $370,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

About Meritage Homes

Meritage Homes Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs and builds single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Homebuilding and Financial Services. It acquires and develops land; and constructs, markets, and sells homes for entry-level and first move-up buyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.